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|  | | Medscheme Tour De Vino |
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| 2009/11/17 - Pouring rain greeted the riders on Sunday for the prestige 2009 Medscheme Tour de Vino road event in the Boland town of Franschoek. At one stage before the start of the main event it was uncertain if the race was actually still going on, but the race Commissaires gave a thumbs-up for the event to continue. Due to the weather conditions, numbers in general were definitely down for this year’s event. The main event started in the rain at 07h00 as planned. The riders would complete a loop of 117 km, which included Paarl, Klapmuts, Stellenbosch and back to Franschoek.
Almost 90% of the entire race was contested in the rain. All the top teams of the Western Cape was present. The visiting teams were Team Medscheme, Toyota CycleLab and also DCM – Chrome. Neotel Yorkshire Academy riders Avery Arendse, Reginald Benjamin and Marius September also participated in the main race of the day.
The bunch mainly stayed together, but with the crosswinds very strong at times the riders at the back were put into the gutter of the road and this caused individual riders and small groups of 3/4 being dropped regularly. At the front of the bunch it was the riders from Medscheme, Daikin and Toyota CycleLab putting on the pressure. With about 20 km to the finish, about 30 riders were in the leading bunch. Also present here was academy riders Avery Arendse and Marius September. Reginald Benjamin found the cold and pressure too tough and got dropped. With about 15 km to the finish a split up a 700 m drag came and a Medscheme rider managed to escape from the bunch. The bunch was also now in two groups. After a few kilometers the two groups were together again but the Medscheme rider still had a lead of about 40 seconds and put on the pressure. The bunch actually organized themselves well and with a 10 km straight road to the finish and a tailwind they chased the Medscheme rider.
With about 300 m to the finish the chasing bunch flew passed the leader. The race was won by the young Jean Spies (Toyota CycleLab), closely followed by Martin Wessermann (Chris Willemse/CPI) and in third position Jaco Venter (DCM-Chrome). Avery Arendse and Marius September of the academy finished in 13th and 18th places respectively in the same bunch time as the winner.
By Ian Goetham | |
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